This is really interesting. The Pats/Kraft/BB usually don't address these issues publicly. They must feel like the agent really screwed this up and are just trying to protect the brand form the info Dunn is leaking out. If they didn't already have a strained relationship with Dunn (which is seems like they do) then this pretty much clinches that future dealings with Dunn clients are going to be difficult at best.

I applaud them. Wish they wwre more aggressive in that are with Spygate.

Just seems out of character. Dunn must have really pissed him off.

I don't think he liked Dunn saying there was no offer. Dunn is the agent for a number of Pats players including Solder, Hernandez, Bequette, dennard, vereen, and mallet (maybe others too). He's a pretty good agent, with some high profile clients like Aaron Rogers, schaub, sanchez, raji, and so on--so he and he Pats will probably be doing business a lot.

I'm glad he said what he said. The crazed Pihranna press gets it wrong and goes into a frenzy, and Bob just steps up and says "hey, it's like this".. damage control? Not really, just wanting the rampant speculation to stop before it becomes truth-like through repetition.

Ocho had the longest reception for the team in SB 46. Too bad he wasn't used more, Welker less, and BJGE more.

Hahahahaha!! I love it! It's all about coaching and game planning right there Rusty! While you argue about BB not making mistakes and none of the SB or playoff losses were because of coaching and/or game planning... you right there admit it yourself!! And don't even try to spin this any other way!!

PHOENIX -- New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was unusually revealing Monday in lamenting receiver Wes Welker's defection to the Denver Broncos, saying the team wanted the receiver back and placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of Welker's agents.

"We usually don't talk about contracts, but I'd like to clear up what I think is some misconceptions about the Wes situation," Kraft told reporters at the NFL annual meeting. "Everyone in our organization wanted Wes Welker back. Anyone who doubts that, or thinks we weren't serious, just doesn't get it. I've owned the team 19 years and I've known in the end we have to have certain limits and restraints. Like I've said many times, I really wanted Wes to be with us through the rest of his career, but it takes two sides to do a deal. ...

"In Wes' case, we were willing to go what we considered above his market value. For a couple years, we tried to get a long-term deal done with him. We couldn't do a deal and we wound up franchising him [in 2012] at a very high number [$9.5 million]. In retrospect, I wish we could have wrapped that into an arrangement where it was part of a longer-term deal.

"But I really believe in this case, his agents misrepresented, in their mind, what his market value was. When you come right down to the bottom line, he accepted a deal in Denver which is less money than what we offered him. In fact, he has a one-year deal in Denver for $6 million. Our last offer, before we would have even gone up and before we thought we were going into free agency, was a $10 million offer with incentives that would have earned him another $6 million if he performed the way he had the previous two years. But in Denver, he's going to count $4 million against the cap this coming year and $8 million the second year. There is no guarantee that he plays the second year there. He will get $6 million the first year. Our deal, he would have gotten $8 million the first year."

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Kraft added that he was "really sad" to see Welker sign with the Broncos and said the team only signed free-agent receiver Danny Amendola as a "second alternative."

"Wednesday, I personally got a call from Wes and he told me about this offer from Denver," Kraft said. "He called Bill [Belichick] as well. We met and we chatted. We have a lot of people, we've committed a lot of money to this inside position -- you have [Rob Gronkowski], you have [Aaron] Hernandez, you have Danny [Amendola] now -- it was just unfortunately a little bit too late.

"If he had called one day earlier, he would have been with us. And so that, is the Wes Welker story. I'm very sad about it and I wish he would have been with our team."

WAIT! Someone please let me know if I missed this part of the article or Mr. Kraft's explanation of this...

While Kraft talks about paying market value, he forgets to mention how Welker out performed his 5 year contract and they never renigotiated his "CHEAP" contract to a market value contract about half way in. Most other teams do that sort of thing.

Also, he can spin it all he wants but it was obvious that they were trying to phase out Welker last year. Then they go and sign Amendola before offering Welker a deal. Then Welker doesn't even get a market value deal. I believe the Titans offered the most, the Broncos offered the 2nd most, then the Pats. So let's just say it like it is.... The Pats offered Welker a low market value contract. It's just a big spin here... If they wanted him back, they clearly could have kept him, instead they don't budge. Take it or leave it! And thanks to that atttitude the Pats receiving core took a big hit!

Go ahead spin Doctors, start your spinning!!

BTW, how many time has Rusty told me to said just let the Welker deal go? Yet he continues to keep posting more and more threads about it! What a hypocrite!!!

Kraft doesn't often come public with comments about players and negotiations. And Kraft also has a reputation at stake and wouldn't come out and make such comments if they were lies. He would do damage control, apologize, say there was miscommunication, but not give the exact details as he is currently doing. From everything I'm reading it's pretty simple. Kraft did indeed want Welker back, and so did BB, but they couldn't offer him the moon and had to protect themsevles if he contiuned to test free agency and rebuke their offer. It looks like Welkers agent is really the one to blame here, and when he finally came to his senses and realized NE is the best bet, it was too late, as NE had "broken the glass in case of emergency" with Amendola as they couldn't risk losing out on both. It sucks, but we can't lay this at the feet of Management.

Damage control is right. When you say, "I want Wes Welker to be a Patriot for life", and you have the money, the extra cap space, and the expectations of a high paying fanbase and you don't deliver, its time to turn on the spin cycle.

The good news for Kraft, as is evidenced by some of the comments here, it doesn't matter what he says or does, the faithful will pop their soma and go on their merry way as if nothing ever happened or it was always a part of the grande (I added the "e" for effect) scheme.

Having read all the various claims and counter claims from both sides, I have a feeling the Pats have been trying to get Welker to sign a two year deal with a potential value of 16 million since 2011. I have a feeling they've always been offering something in the range of 10 million guaranteed over two years with incentives that could get the value up to 16 million over two years. I know there were reports that Welker was offered two years at 16 million fully guaranteed in 2011. However, neither side has ever confirmed that report. In fact, when asked, Welker said what he was offered was "worse." Most reporters interpreted that to mean the Pats had actually reduced their offer from 16 million guaranteed to something less. Welker later said "worse" was a bad choice of words. I have a feeling he was reacting to the interpretation the press had that the deal had been reduced. In retrospect, I think he meant that the original offer was actually worse than the reported 16 million guaranteed. I suspect the Pats offered around 10 million guaranteed with incentives to get it up to 16 million in 2011 and stuck with that deal ever since.

Welker's agent said no deal was ever offered. I tend to think what happened is the "offer" never got past the discussion phase to a formal written offer. Hence, the agent can say there was no offer, while Kraft can say there was because both are defining "offer" a bit differently.

As Kraft said, they set a value on Welker--and then, I suspect, probably didn't budge. Welker, meanwhile, thought the market was higher. In the end, Welker and his agent decided to play under the tag and get above-market pay in 2012 and test the market again in 2013. In 2013 they found that the Pats were close to gauging the market correctly, but Denver upped the Pats just a bit by offering $6 million guaranteed instead of $5 guaranteed with a potential $3 in incentive payments.

Clearly, Welker and his agents thought the incentives were fairly risky. Kraft seems to imply they weren't, but if they were easy incentives, why bother with them at all? You could just give Welker the money and be done with it. I suspect the incentives were not impossible to achieve but also not slam dunks, somewhere in-between what Welker's camp is saying and what Kraft was saying. In the end, players and agents go for guaranteed money, so Welker and his agent decided to take the guarantees over the potential upside.

I really don't think anyone is to "blame." It's just a negotiation and the sides never got to a place where they were both comfortable and therefore couldn't make it work. Happens all the time . . .

Damage control is right. When you say, "I want Wes Welker to be a Patriot for life", and you have the money, the extra cap space, and the expectations of a high paying fanbase and you don't deliver, its time to turn on the spin cycle.

The good news for Kraft, as is evidenced by some of the comments here, it doesn't matter what he says or does, the faithful will pop their soma and go on their merry way as if nothing ever happened or it was always a part of the grande (I added the "e" for effect) scheme.

I still dont get why you are here. You say it, but it doesn't make sense. You should be hanging out with your team instead of hanging out here. Weird. So, anything you say is suspect automatically. And your thin protestations of neutral analysis are quickly exposed as delusion by your next nasty comment. I truly have come to detest you, thou cursed fail.

WAIT! Someone please let me know if I missed this part of the article or Mr. Kraft's explanation of this...

While Kraft talks about paying market value, he forgets to mention how Welker out performed his 5 year contract and they never renigotiated his "CHEAP" contract to a market value contract about half way in. Most other teams do that sort of thing.

Also, he can spin it all he wants but it was obvious that they were trying to phase out Welker last year. Then they go and sign Amendola before offering Welker a deal. Then Welker doesn't even get a market value deal. I believe the Titans offered the most, the Broncos offered the 2nd most, then the Pats. So let's just say it like it is.... The Pats offered Welker a low market value contract. It's just a big spin here... If they wanted him back, they clearly could have kept him, instead they don't budge. Take it or leave it! And thanks to that atttitude the Pats receiving core took a big hit!

Go ahead spin Doctors, start your spinning!!

BTW, how many time has Rusty told me to said just let the Welker deal go? Yet he continues to keep posting more and more threads about it! What a hypocrite!!!

I think if Wes hadn't torn up his knee, they would have restructered that offseason.

I honestly think they don't have enough time for me between each commerical break. They need to just have me come on once a week and just unload a laundry list of things they're wrong about, leaving a nuclear glow in my wake.

Predicttion:

Denver will rent Welker for 1 year, will not win 14 games again, and their defense will be WORSE in 2013 than it was in 2012.

Maybe the guy's better at his job than you and a bunch of other fans think?

Maybe Welker isn't the firing kind of guy and too nice? I don't care what he does. All I know is, his agent misled him.

But you don't actually know that, since you don't have all the details about what was really being discussed or offered. None of us knows for sure. I know the agent wasn't able to secure as large a deal as he and Welker wanted. I'm not convinced, however, that the deal he did get for Welker wasn't the best that Welker could have gotten, given Welker's inability to negotiate freely last year because of the franchise tag.